I'm told: "Everyone at SyCo is determined to transform Leona into a global touring powerhouse.

She has proved she can sell millions of records, so the next logical step is for her to pack out arenas.

She's barely played any gigs at all at the moment. Oh - and "proving she can sell millions of records" is a bit of a stretch: she's shown she can sell a lot of one, heavily TV-promoted album, in Europe; in the US, Spirit did okay business but nothing stellar. It's like, I don't know, she was just parachuted in to the top of the showbusiness pecking order, and doesn't actually have any bedrock support underneath her.

Hence all the attempt to try and take a woman who has hardly ever done a live gig in her life and build a stadium event around her. It's clear that nobody in her organisation really believes her talent is enough:

[H]er record label have told her: "Money is no object."

Generally, if the label is pouring in cash to try and turn your show into a spectacle, it's an acknowledgment that you, on your own, aren't very spectacular at all.

So, Gordon: what's the big idea here:

She is teaming up with TRAVIS PAYNE, the dance guru behind MICHAEL JACKSON's ill-fated comeback gigs, for a spectacular 14-month world tour.

Aha. Who wouldn't want a man who helped dance Jackson into an early grave on board, eh? Nothing like working with somebody who has the words "ill-fated" on his CV.

Still, with all this money pouring in, there must be a clear, central proposition to the way Leona is going to be marketed, right?

The source added: "The Garden Of Eden theme will allow Leona to showcase two sides to her character: The angelic songbird, and the less well-behaved R&B vixen."

Ah. So, in other words: they haven't really got a clue, then, who she is, how to market her, or who might want to buy her music. No wonder the plan is to just throw money at the problem.

To be fair she did have the biggest selling debut album in the States last year and has oputsold the likes of Lady GaGa and Katy Perry. It was also the third biggest selling in the world from all those released in 2007 - comfortably outselling both of Beyonce's last albums, both of Britney's, both of Pink's etc

As for the story itself, probably utter nonsense. 90% of the exclusives/rubbish Gordon Smart has posted about her have proven to be false. It's also as if the Syco PR he feed him this guff to "create a buzz" don't realise how ridiculously stupid it looks.